


No Monsters in Your Closet

by morganoconner



Series: Second Chances [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Curtain Fic, Gen, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-12
Updated: 2012-04-12
Packaged: 2017-11-04 08:02:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/391598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morganoconner/pseuds/morganoconner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel's too afraid to fall asleep. Dean makes it better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Monsters in Your Closet

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Round 2 of [](http://silverbullets.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://silverbullets.livejournal.com/)**silverbullets** , for the prompt _a sound in the walls_.

Dean's gotten used to keeping an ear on the room across the hall from his. At night, he usually lies in bed reading to the background noise of little boy whispers and giggling, and only falls asleep himself when Sam and Castiel have quieted.

Tonight, though, it's too quiet to start with. Sam is spending the night at a friend's birthday sleepover, his first night away from home since…

Well, _since_.

He told them at first that he didn't want to go. Dean's pretty sure that if Cas hadn't fixed him with those big blue eyes and said, "Yes, you do", Sam would have pleaded ill or found some other way to beg off. Sam's made a few friends in this town, other kids he enjoys playing with, but his first priority, his best friend in the whole world, will always be Cas.

And Cas doesn't feel safe enough yet to leave the house for long periods of time.

Dean doesn't really blame the little guy. They haven't heard a peep from the angels in over a year, but he figures Castiel is probably still Public Enemy #1 after the whole Purgatory debacle. Bound to a mortal vessel, no nifty angel-hiding sigils on his ribs, little control over his burgeoning powers, and zero chance of defending himself against much older, much bigger angels…of course Cas wouldn't want to take needless chances. Even a six-year-old is smart enough to know that's a stupid idea.

Someday, Dean would really like to see Cas be able to let loose and act like the kid he was forced to be. But right now, he's too shy to be able to make friends like Sam does, and too wary to want to be away from their well-protected home, and Dean gets that. Course he does.

And besides that, if the house is this maddeningly quiet right now, Dean isn't sure how he's ever going to be able to cope with _both_ kids being gone.

He debates for a while about going across the hall and poking his head in to check on Cas. It's pretty obvious the kid isn't sleeping, because there's no rustling from the way he usually tosses and turns in the bottom bunk, none of the little snuffling sounds he makes when he's dreaming.

The choice is taken out of Dean's hands when he hears the kids' door open, followed by the shuffle of little footsteps across the carpet and his own door creaking open.

"Hey, buddy," Dean says, and then there's running, and jumping, and Dean doesn't even have a chance to make an " _Oof!_ " sound as the breath is knocked from him before Cas is clinging to him like a limpet. "Hey, shh, what's wrong?" he asks, rubbing a hand up and down Castiel's back, trying to soothe him.

Cas sniffles, burying his face in Dean's chest. "I'm sorry," he whispers. "I shouldn't have –"

"Hey now, none of that," Dean cuts in firmly. "Just tell me what's wrong so we can fix it, huh? You missing Sam?"

Cas shakes his head, then seems to reconsider and nods a little. "Yes but that's not what's wrong," he says, voice muffled by Dean's shirt. Dean smoothes his hand over Castiel's ridiculous flyaway hair, and slowly the kid's face tilts up so he can meet Dean's eyes. "It was Napoleon."

Dean smothers his snort of laughter. "I gotcha, sweetie. He in the walls again?"

"Yes," Castiel says with a nod. "Sammy's snoring usually makes it so I can't hear."

This time there's no stopping the grin. "I bet it does." He meant to call pest control on their little (okay, actually sort of giant) friend last week. The scratching in the walls had freaked all of them out the first time, because they'd learned the hard way a long time ago that that sound never meant anything good. When they realized it was actually just one stupidly brave mouse, they'd had a good laugh over it, and Sam had even dubbed it with a name to fit its adventurous personality. While meanwhile, Dean spent two weeks trying to trap the thing before he realized he was in a little over his head. Ghosts were one thing, ghosts were _easy_. Rodents, not so much.

"I know I shouldn't be scared," Cas sniffs, hiding his face again.

"We're all scared of stuff, Cas. Even stuff that doesn't always make sense to be scared of." Dean bends and presses a kiss into Castiel's dark curls. "I promise Napoleon doesn't want to hurt you…In fact, he's probably more scared of you than you are of him."

"Only scared when he's in the walls," Cas mumbles. "'Cause then it sounds like something after me."

 _You got enough bad guys after you without having to make up new ones,_ Dean thinks but doesn't say. He made a promise to himself to keep Cas safe for as long as he had to, and he intends on keeping that promise. Nothing's going to get Cas in this house. "Will you feel safer if you stay with me tonight?" he asks.

Castiel blinks up at him. "Really?" His voice is wobbly.

"Really," Dean says, and almost gets strangled by the force of the hug he gets in return. "Come on squirt, lie down." He pulls Cas down with him on the bed, and Cas curls up instantly against his side, head pillowed on Dean's chest, hand clenched in the fabric of his shirt.

Very quietly, Dean begins to sing. "Hey Jude, don't make it bad." Castiel's little voice joins in immediately. "Take a sad song, and make it better..."

They sing together until Castiel's voice trails off and his breathing evens out against Dean's side. Dean smiles helplessly down at him, then curls his arm tighter around the little angel and follows him into sleep.


End file.
